John Conway Harrison (born in 1913) and his younger brother Robert are the sons of Dr. F.R. Harrison of Harlowton, Mont. Their mother was E.C. Harrison, a dean at Montana State College in Bozeman. John and Robert Harrison both served in the armed forces in Europe during World War II. Robert C. Harrison was killed after he had escaped from a German prison camp in Apr. 1945. John C. Harrison returned to Helena and practiced law privately, for the Montana Taxpayers Association, and as a county attorney. In 1961 he was elected to the Montana Supreme Court.

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John Harrison and Robert Harrison were Harlowton, Montana, residents who served in Europe in World War II. This collection consists primarily of letters written by John C. and Robert Harrison to their parents in Harlowton and Bozeman, Montana, while they served in England, Belgium, and Germany during World War II. The letters discuss the war, the Harrison family, wartime Europe, and life in the military, including a letter from Robert in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. John's letters to his mother also mention Montana politics including references to Lee Metcalf. A large group of the correspondence consists of typed transcriptions of letters from John C. to his wife "China." Also included in the collection is miscellaneous correspondence (1943-1946), clippings (1940s), and a writing (1944) by John Thompson describing the military action in the hundred days after the Normandy invasion. In addition there are photocopies of a speech (1950s) to a U.S. Congressional Committee concerning tuberculosis in the Montana Native American population, and of a memorial (1963) to Charles Nelson Pray, both of which were written by John C. Harrison. (SC 1913).